Jude
Member
At my uni there's a compulsory essay that all 2nd year maths students have to do, on whatever we like. The only requirements is that the maths is advanced enough that it would take a 2nd year a few times reading through before they fully get it.
So, my choice of topic is group theory and it's applications in puzzles - e.g. rubik's cube. My question is, can anyone recommend any particularly interesting theorems/papers/books etc I could research? I need some sort of goal to work towards, some sort of objective. For example, I could work towards proving the maximum minimum amount of moves needed to solve the rubik's cube but I spoke to my tutor and he said that proof was probably a bit too advanced for this essay. Are there any other significant results in the mathematics behind cubing (or not neccessarily cubing but a puzzle of some sort) that I could try and prove?
Thanks
EDIT: Finished essay can be downloaded here: http://www28.zippyshare.com/v/97472928/file.html
So, my choice of topic is group theory and it's applications in puzzles - e.g. rubik's cube. My question is, can anyone recommend any particularly interesting theorems/papers/books etc I could research? I need some sort of goal to work towards, some sort of objective. For example, I could work towards proving the maximum minimum amount of moves needed to solve the rubik's cube but I spoke to my tutor and he said that proof was probably a bit too advanced for this essay. Are there any other significant results in the mathematics behind cubing (or not neccessarily cubing but a puzzle of some sort) that I could try and prove?
Thanks
EDIT: Finished essay can be downloaded here: http://www28.zippyshare.com/v/97472928/file.html
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